Pokemon School Party!
by Rogue Palindrome
Summary: Registering for Pallet School? Check. Eager for adventure? Check. Fun and entertainment? Nuff' said! Original story with a pinch of romance. Join Dash and pals in a unique mix of adventure, humour and excitement! Mostly featuring original 151. Chap 3 up!
1. Freshness

Disclaimer's Note: Pokemon belongs to me! Scrap that. Pokemon does not belong to me. Damn you, Nintendo.

* * *

**Pokemon School Party! Chapter 1 – Freshness**

_Dash crept along the green turf, footfalls silenced by the grass. A swish in the air told him he was targeted and instinctly ducked behind a nearby boulder. A spurt of bullets hit the spot he had been at earlier, sending dirt and grass spraying. Edging himself cautiously to one side of the rock, Dash caught sight of the enemy diving behind another boulder and sent a useless spray at the enemy with his assault rifle. Angry spats sounded when metal met granite._

'_All too easy, I shall just fake a reloading and grenade him out of his hiding spot,' Dash thought._

_Dash swiftly took out his plasma grenade and felt the cool ball wrapped in his palm. This grenade of Covenant origin was particularly nasty in a way that it stuck onto whatever it hit and it was almost impossible to get rid of it in time. Dash mentally timed 2 seconds before aiming the grenade at the spot slightly above the enemy's boulder. As expected, the enemy stood up at the spot where Dash had thrown the plasma ball, sticking directly onto his astonished face._

"_Take that, you son of a gun-"_

What Dash expected was a fireball-like explosion, and not bright light filling his sensitive eyes. Irritated, Dash could not help but release a groan. Apparently his mother had drawn the curtain blinds, much like how all mothers do when waking up their children at the most exciting part of their dreams.

"Seriously mom, why did you have to wake me up? My dreams are _always _incomplete. I was so going to-" Dash stopped himself; he could not let his mother know he was up all night playing Halo 3 on his Xbox 360. Naye. He was supposed to be sleeping soundly in his bed. How he managed to pull away from the Xbox and put his body on his bed will truly be a mystery even to himself.

Mrs. Bolton raised her eyebrow and eyed her son suspiciously. "You were going to what?"

"Uh, I was going to… uh wake up by myself. Yea, that's it. What time is it anyway?" _Hopefully changing the subject is going to stop mom from pursuing this issue and save my ass._

"It is 7.50 am, sleepyhead. Why do you think I _always_ have to wake you up? The only thing that would do any good for me when you get detention for being late is to say 'I told you so'. Just hurry up and go get ready, I've packed your breakfast for you. It's the little brown paper bag on the kitchen table. You can't miss it."

With that, Mrs. Bolton sighed and stepped out of the room thinking, _I wonder when the dear boy is going stop playing his darn Xbox, he'll never get to school early at this rate._

That sent alarm bells in Dash's head ringing. "What! 7.50? I AM going to be late! ARRGHHH! I need to take a shower… No, just get changed already… Damned Mew." Dash Bolton muttered to himself, striping off his clothes and slipped on a new set of school uniform.

Dash Bolton was an 11-year-old student in Pallet School. His birth name? Dashiel Orion Bolton. Pretty neat, huh? Though Dashiel sounded somewhat cooler, Dash was pretty much the easier calling of the two. It is his second year in the Secondary Level this time. He was quite an active boy in school. He had always wanted to be a Pokemon trainer and travel around the world. He loved dragon Pokemon more than anyone one else. Well, not love as in developing feelings in a boy girl relationship, but you know what I mean.

He had dark brown hair, just like his father, Mr. Bolton. He had a nice bronze tanned skin and had blue coloured eyes and was more than happy to know that his eye colour was not green. He is always eager to do about anything to deal with Pokemon. He has an exploding fringe and had gotten his good looks from his father. But he had no time to style his hair this morning, he never had.

After cleaning up and wearing his clothes, Dash hurried down stairs to grab his breakfast and his bag. He then rushed out of his house waving goodbye to his parents. _Bye!_ He thought, despite knowing that they could not hear it.

"Oh boy, our son sure lives up to his name!" Mr. Bolton, with the wind created from Dash's run blowing at the newspaper he was holding.

"Well, what do you expect? He is in the school team for running. Remember the other day, he said that he was going to be participating in the athletics event next year. What's it called? It was some 'Hyper Dash' or some other whatnot." Mrs. Bolton said, "They named the race after our son, it's like announcing his victory before they even start, isn't it? Hmm, Dashiel Bolton, champion of this year's Hyper Dash race. Such a talented winner at this year's event-"

Mrs. Bolton chuckled at her own imitation of a would-be commentator and continued ranting, and left her husband with both eyebrows raised. Mr Bolton's gaze lingered at his wife's behaviour briefly before returning to his morning paper.

* * *

**Meanwhile…**

Dash glanced at his watch and the luminous digits on the plastic surface flashed: 7.55 am. _Ah… Only 5 more minutes left to reach school. I must double up. There's no way I'm going to be late again. Not today.__ I don't want to be scolded by that useless discipline teacher, Pedro again. I rather be whacked by a Magikarp's splash than face him in detention._

* * *

**3 minutes later**

"Go! Shoo! Scat!" Dash shouted at several Pidgeys on the grass blocking his way and charged through the open doors of Pallet School without stopping to give the birds time to fly off from his mini-stampede. He was about to step into his classroom when Mr. Pedro appeared out from nowhere and grabbed his shoulder, causing Dash to jerk backwards and almost trip.

"Where do you think you are going? Trying to sneak in into the classroom to avoid detention because you are _late_ again eh?" Mr. Pedro pressed his face against Dash's, with 2 pairs of eyes engaging in a stare contest.

Dash had never seen eye-to-eye (pardon the pun) with the ex-prison guard for the past 4 and three-quarter years, even much less on friendly terms with him. Just this week Dash had already bickered with Mr. Pedro on 3 accounts, all regarding punctuality issues. Mr. Pedro often scared the smaller kids with his strict and harsh personality, but something about him told Dash that defiance was the only way to go. Though it usually landed him in trouble.

"Yea, look Pedro," Dash stressed on the discipline teacher's name as if it were made of poison. Dash didn't want to sound too unpleasant and tried to keep his tone in check, but very much failing to do so. Dash was more or less used to Mr. Pedro's sneaky tactics and sudden appearance out of nowhere every now and then. The tanned-hair boy continued, "You know it's still 7.59 am and technically you can't stop me from walking through that door. By the way have I ever told you that your scare tactics aren't working on me? So why don't you spend your time better and prowl on those who _are _late, huh?" Dash was glad for once he could give Mr. Pedro a piece of his mind without getting into serious trouble.

"First of all, that would be _**mister**_ Pedro to you," Pedro hissed disturbingly at the word: mister; his hand unconsciously outlining the word in front of Dash. Though to Dash, it seemed as if Pedro had bold, underlined, italic-ed and highlighted all together on the virtual word that his hand had spelt out for Dash. It was like teaching a child how to spell ABC, though replacing the child with one of a hundred times its intelligence and witty comebacks and the teacher with well, an irritating crack-up.

"And second you better know your place than to argue with me again, or it will be less pleasant when our next meeting arrives. Do I make myself clear?"

"Fine _mister_ Pedro," where Dash hissed mockingly at the teacher, "You can count on that. And you're ruffling up my shirt, thank you very much." With that, Dash reached up to try to loosen Pedro's grip on his collar.

Mr. Pedro unwillingly released his hold on Dash and indicated the classroom door with his index finger, "If you don't get in that room in another 10 seconds, then you should be marching your way to the detention room for the fourth time this week.

With that, he walked away with his usual cold blank expression on his face with what seemed like a half-frown plastered on it and skulked off to find other victims he could scold. _Kids these days just don't have any inkling on how to respect their elders. No this, no that. Damn, it would have made my day if I could land that non-respecting little bugger in detention. Sheesh!_

Dash quickly shuffled into his classroom, trying to put Mr. Pedro and the detention room at the back of his mind. The school bell rang the moment he sat down next to his best friend Brandon while putting his bag on another empty chair next to him.

Brandon Farch was the same age as Dash, another 11-year-old student in Pallet School. He and Dash had been neighbours since they were born, and they were the best of friends. If you looked at "friends" under the dictionary, you could see the picture of both of them, as a figure of speech of course. He had spiked black hair which complemented his fair skin. Always the joker, he never failed to entertain anyone. He, like Dash, could never sit still for more than an hour. Despite being the best of friends for more than 10 years, Dash could tell that his companion was a still a tad mysterious in many ways.

"Hey, what happened to you? I saw Mr. Pedro talking to you. I bet it's not a courtesy call." Brandon nudged Dash on his ribs. "No wait, let me guess. Epic showdown between that prowler and the fastest boy on earth, double knockout!"

"Very funny Brandon, I always wonder how you manage to think all this stuff up."

"I wonder how too. Anyway, did you get detention _again_?"

"Oh, that? Nope, lucky me. I just had a more than 'friendly' – which Dash did an inverted comma sign for emphasis – chat with the prowler, that dang teacher just can't keep his nose from poking into other people's business." More or less everyone referred to Mr. Pedro as the Prowler because well, that's what he does.

"Actually, it's your fault for introducing that Halo 3 game to me. It's so damn addictive."

"That's your problem bud. You hardly see me losing any sleep over it, haha."

"But you have your mysterious ways of not having to pry your hands off that console!"

"I highly doubt that. I think it's just you. And I would hardly call my ways mysterious." Brandon let that mysterious smile creep up his face.

"See you're doing it again! That weird smile of yours, ew. Worse of all, I still feel tired."

"Hah! You and your sleeping habits are going to get you into real trouble one day. I hereby announce that Dash is the Guinness World Record Holder for the longest consecutive hours spent sleeping. Such a befitting title for you Dash." Brandon mused and he ducked an overhead punch from Dash.

A slight cough from the front of the classroom indicated that their form teacher, Mrs. Goodwin, was present and was shaking her head in slight disapproval at the two boys.

"Good morning class." Mrs. Goodwin interrupted their conversation.

"Good morning Mrs. Goodwin…" the class greeted her with the same monotonous tone.

Mrs. Goodwin was a teacher in Pallet School. Rumours said that she was from Hoenn but moved to Kanto because she was caught in some freak storm and her parents were lost in it. She had to raise her younger sister as she was the elder of the two, and moved to Kanto when her sibling was 20 years old. Mrs. Goodwin had fair skin and liked keeping her long hair down. Her preferred subjects were Mathematics and Pokemon Study. She always wears a blouse or a dress, because to her wearing pants kind of suck. She is also the form teacher of Dash's class 2A.

"Alright! Class. Today we are going to continue yesterday's topic on Pokemon and their various habitats, now if you will flip your books to page 127."

"Boooo."

"Get real."

"Text books are such a bore." Moans and groans echoed in the classroom, "I wanna sleep…"

"Ahem! As I was saying, flip to page 127 and we will wrap up on electric Pokemon and their natural habitats. And IF we have time, maybe I'll give a bonus lecture on dragon Pokemon." Mrs. Goodwin raised her voice in order for her to be heard above the complaints.

There was an indefinitely increase in excitement the moment she finished her last line, as they had never read or even heard about any dragon Pokemon, especially Dash. "Yippee! Dragons… We're talking about dragon Pokemon. Woohoo! Woop-woop!" Dash raised his hands in the air and did a cowboy rodeo dance that oddly resembled Neg from Balls of Steel for a while, before settling into a daze, a large contrast from the commotion he caused previously.

"Hey! We are talking about Dragons… DRAGONS… DRAAGGOOONNNSSS! DASH, DRAGONS! Your favourite type of Pokemon and their god-knows-what-not! Eh… hello? Dash, you there? Earth to Dash: Can you hear me? Oh damn, his engine just went out guys." Brandon shook Dash to wake him from his daze. Dash was giving that drooling attitude and was still having that sparkles on his eyes.

"Yoohoo, Dash. Snap out of it…" Brandon poked Dash in the ribs again for the second time for the day.

"Dragons…" Dash muttered, still in his daze and causing everyone to sweatdrop.

Everyone in the class knew Dash was a Dragon Pokemon fanatic, and they knew he tended to overreact and make a big fuss about it. "Ahem! Dash! Are you awake? I repeat, are you awake?" Mrs. Goodwin exclaimed. With that, Dash snapped out of his daze so suddenly that he stood up shouting "Yes Ma'm!"

Mrs. Goodwin continued saying all the statistics and information about electric Pokemon and their habitats. Dash went back into his daze again and those who could hear him merely sweatdropped again.

* * *

**Time passes…**

**An hour later:**

"So does anyone have any questions?" Mrs. Goodwin concluded her lesson and seeing no one with their hands in the air, "So I shall give you today's assignment: I want an essay of electric Pokemon and how they interact with other breeds, in your own words please. And don't bother copying from the textbook, there's a little more than a paragraph of information in there. So if you haven't been listening to today's lesson, I must say good luck to you."

"Don't complain, you have the whole weekend to do it," as she addressed the grumbles across the classroom. She started to pack her materials before remembering something important.

"I can't believe I forgot a reminder so important. Remember at the start of the year, we announced that you all can get to own your very first Pokemon under your temporary trainer's license right? I do believe it is time to start choosing and listing down your top three choices of Pokemon that you younglings want."

Needless to say, everybody seemingly perked up and murmurs broke out throughout the class. It was their tentatively to-be first Pokemon afterall. I mean it was a hell lot more exciting than learning why Voltorbs or Magnemites do not poop, right? Of course the part about pooping happens to be not in their syllabus but that's not the point.

"Keep in mind that the Pokemon Association has clamped down the range of Pokemon choices to those only of Tier 1 Pokemon, those of higher tiers are a tad more dangerous and risky to handle."

The Pokemon Association ranks Pokemon accordingly to their threat level and degree of bloodlust to non Pokemon trainers, with Tier 1 being the tamest, like though darn Caterpies who give no care to anything else but feeding on pathetic leaves, and Tier 4 being the most dangerous. Everybody knows playing around with Tier 4 Pokemon means courting their own death, literally.

"Mrs. Goodwin, can we choose any evolved Pokemon that still is in Tier 1?" Danella Miers, a girl of adventurous and amiable nature, voiced.

"No, my dear, I'm afraid not. Once again the association wants you guys to start afresh with a new un-evolved Pokemon. And I hardly think the association would rank an evolved Pokemon with something relatively harmless ones. Try Caterpie and Metapod. Ok, bad example." Mrs. Goodwin answered and a few audible 'aws' were sounded.

After handing out a sheet of paper to everyone, and a horde-like commotion, she clapped her hands to seek the class's attention, a third time that day.

"That's the final list of acceptable Pokemon you need to watch out for. Government orders, no point arguing with me about that list. Of course your due choice will be subjected to that Pokemon's availability the association currently has. Unless you can somehow manage to find whatever uncommon ones you wish to find, you should better stick to those of more practical choices."

With that the bell rang and she hurriedly piled her books and strolled out of the classroom. Upon reaching the doorway, she turned her head back towards the class. "And remember to do your essays!"

* * *

**Afternoon**

After school, Brandon and Dash were walking home together, both eyeing the list that Mrs. Goodwin had given out during class with great interest.

"Are you kidding me? Both Nidorans are not in this list. I bet the association's scared of us getting poisoned." Brandon said with his face one of irritation.

"So is Diglett. Though the recent tremors in Diglett's Cave might have helped them decide." Dash replied.

"Look at this! Venonat's in this list, but isn't it supposed to be of poison type too? This is ridiculous."

"Yea, those fools at the government are plain retarded. Heh, I bet I'll make a better official than they are." (Elsewhere, a couple of officials sneezed, all at the same time.)

Brandon laughed, "You? You can't even hold yourself responsible for waking up early. What more of making important decisions for the entire population?"

Dash frowned. "Hey! At least I'm consistent with it. Not like the association, they are always easily swayed by third parties."

"How true." Brandon's statement triggered chuckles between the both pals.

"Anyhow, I'm still fired up by this. Our first Pokemon! How neat, huh? I can't wait to show my parents this list."

"Right, I think I'll lose some sleep over this. Which means it's too bad for Mrs. Goodwin, there goes my homework."

"She _will _kill you if you don't finish it by Monday. Remember that time where you made up the excuse where your Growlithe ate up your homework? No go, man."

"Well, that was bad impromptu thinking on my part. I don't even have a Growlithe, haha." Brandon recalled as lazily kicked a rock on the pavement.

"You think we'll get what we want?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. It's a fanfic afterall, let's leave it to that damn author to decide for us."

"Haha, good point. I'm raring to go. I can't wait till next year where we get our first Pokemon. Too bad, there's still one more year of education even after getting hold of it."

"Yea, pity. Shucks, we'll live, don't worry."

"Hell yea. To our first Pokemon!"

With that, the two friends fist-bumped each other, both grinning from ear to ear and fiery passion burning in their eyes.

* * *

**Author's ramble:** Huzzah! My first fanfic. I especially liked writing the Halo 3 dream part, though I must admit it was totally random to put it here. There's our 2 main guy characters. Might introduce the girls within the next few chapters. Thought there might be too much character info to process here already. What do you think? Reviews appreciated (:

_To be continued_


	2. A Visit

Disclaimer's Note: Pokemon belongs to me! Scrap that. Pokemon does not belong to me. Damn you, Nintendo.

* * *

**Pokemon School Party! Chapter 2 – A Visit**

"THIS. IS. ALL. YOUR. FAULT!"

Danella took Dash's pillow and whacked Brandon with each word she said. Hard.

"Well actually Danella, it was your own fault for laughing at me. And by the way I kind of like being hammered, by a girl, I might add. So you're the victim here, girl."

Brandon simply remained seated on Dash's bed, gladly getting thumped and not making any attempt to stop her.

* * *

_Flashback to Monday's lesson time_

"_BRANDON! Where is my essay about those electric stuff that I told you to write?" Mrs. Goodwin hollered._

"_Hold on, let me think up an excuse first, Mrs. Goodwin." Brandon brought his hand up to his chin and acted as though he was in deep thought._

"_None, I didn't do it." Brandon calmly replied after mock-thinking for less than a second._

"_What? No excuse this time?"_

"_Nah, too much effort to think of one. Or at least a practical one. Would you rather me say that my mum thought my essay was some useless stocks flyer with those taglines like 'Learn the art of buying low, and selling even lower'? Seriously, they need to come up with better slogans."_

_Dash was banging his palm on the table laughing away, literally out of breath. Danella, sitting behind the both of them, too was laughing so hard she fell off her chair._

"_Well, Mr. Farch, since you never take anything seriously, why don't you and those two cackling clown friends of yours (indicating at Dash and Danella) make yourselves useful by doing a new assignment together."_

_That immediately shut both the laughing duo up. "What assignment?"_

"_Oh, nothing much, just an extra project on the balance of nature between ALL the power types of Pokemon. By Wednesday. I think you three have earned it, don't you think so?"_

_The class burst into laughter, except for the three of them. Ironically, the ones laughing their hearts out moments ago were now the targets of laughter._

* * *

"Don't you dare push the blame away, Brandon. I can't believe she would punish _me_ for _your_ damn mistake." Danella made a face and stuck her tongue out at him.

Dash half sat on his bedroom floor, sniggering at the situation in front of him. Where most boys (those hopeless romantics) treated girls like goddesses, Dash knew Brandon would simply treat any girl like he would to any other boy.

Danella suddenly snapped her head at Dash; brows furrowed and pointed a finger accusingly at him.

"And you Dash! It's your fault too."

"What? How is this my fault?"

"You and your contagious laughter. You laughed so hard yesterday that I couldn't help but join in too. I got dragged down by the both of you!"

"Ho! Wait a minute, if I recall correctly, you fell off your chair laughing first, that's why I laughed too. You dragged me down, Danella. Not the other way round."

"Yea, but I'm always right."

"But you laughed first."

"Yea, but I'm always right."

"But you fell off your chair."

"Yea, but I'm always right."

Dash smacked his head with his palm, muttering, "Girls."

"What did you say, Dash?"

"Nothing! Feeling up for some Halo?" Dash said to Brandon, then back to Danella, "You don't play Halo right? Halo? No halo for you then."

Brandon immediately jumped off the bed. "I'm in!"

Both boys simultaneously reached for the console and controllers, but Danella swiftly slapped both their outreaching hands. Danella frowned at the both of them, "Have you two forgotten what we are supposed to do? We have to finish this useless punishment that Mrs. Goodwin gave us, and I'm definitely not doing this on my own."

_Well, at least she looks kind of cute when she gets angry- Wait what? What the hell am I thinking?_ Dash shook his head hard to get rid of that thought.

"Come on, we have the whole afternoon and probably night to finish this. What's the rush! I mean how simple can it be. Water over fire, fire over grass, grass over water. Blah blah blah. Chop, chop. Finish. Do you remember the other time Mrs. Goodwin was saying something about going against the nature of-" Brandon continued ranting as he proceeded to switch on the Xbox console. Unknown to him, hashes started forming on Danella's forehead.

"Brandon."

"-can't believe she was right about that for once. Yea?-" Brandon turned his head at Danella, just in time to see her fist coming at him. Unfortunately knowing about something and doing something about it were two totally different things, and Brandon tried to avoid her punch a tad too late and was efficiently knocked out on Dash's bed.

"Nice punch." Dash commented.

"Thanks."

"Now what?"

"We wait."

The TV screen pulsed as the Xbox logo came up.

"Halo?"

Danella eyed Dash for a while, before giving in. "Halo it is then."

* * *

**An hour later**

"Take this shot to hell!"

"NOO!"

_[danella007 ended balderdash88's killing spree.]_

Brandon woke up to Dash's shouts just to see Danella snipe Dash's character. On the screen, it looked as if the shot was godlike. In reality, it was a one in a million shot, entirely impossible to pull off.

Brandon mumbled as he roused from the bed, "That's pretty good. Killing Dash is not an easy feat. For, well, you anyway."

"Oh, you're awake." Dash sulked.

"Wow, the first thing you say when you wake up is to insult me again. That's very smart of you, Brandon." Danella sighed. "When do boys ever learn?"

"Nah, I was joking Danella. Go ahead, you can punch me again."

"Really?"

"No. When do girls ever learn?"

"Oh shut it."

"By the way, good punch."

"Thanks. Now that you're up, let's finish the darn assignment." [_Silence_] "Or we could continue playing."

"Yeah, that's the way!" With that, Danella tossed a third controller at Brandon, who promptly logged in, joining his other two friends in frantically tapping at their consoles.

* * *

**Meanwhile, on Cinnabar Island**

Miles away from Pallet Town, Millard Reynolds yawned and stretched. His fieldwork with analysing fossils and ancient rocks were tiring. Chemical tests, sampling, laboratory analysis, chromatography. He had been working in the lab for weeks, analysing the new sample a trainer found weeks ago.

_I need a break. This is getting nowhere. Heck, too much white and brown in the lab would do me no good. I need some colour in my life._

He took off his white pristine coat and walked out of his laboratory. Millard entered the living room and took in the scene outside his window. The darken clouds partially covering the sun did not seem to help lighten his mood.

_I need company. Friends. I'll visit the Bolton's. Right, I'll give them a ring. I wonder how they are right now._

Millard picked up the phone and punched in a series of number. Grabbing the receiver, he let the phone ring.

_*ring*_

_*ring*_

_*kachek*_

"Bolton's residence. Hello?"

"Hey Katherine. It's me."

"Oh my god! Millard! How have you been! We haven't seen you ever since you picked up the thing from that guy in that place."

"I'm fine, just spending too much time on the thing from that guy in that place. It wasn't _that_ long ago, Kate. How are Rusty and the kids?"

"Excellent! Say, why don't you visit us soon. I bet the kids are eager to see you again."

"Actually-"

"Wait, don't tell me you're in trouble again?"

"No, Kate-"

"You need to borrow some money?"

"Kate-"

"Your house got burnt down?"

"Kate! Actually I was going to say I wouldn't mind visiting you guys today. Maybe have a little dinner, I still miss your cooking. My job is getting boring and I could use some proper company. Lab assistants don't count, haha."

"Oh. Why didn't you say so earlier! Wait, today?"

"Yea."

"That's a problem. We're short on provisions. Actually, we can pick up some extra groceries at the Viridian super mart. I'll ask Rusty to drive us there."

"Not imposing on you, am I?"

"Not at all Millard, you're our best friend! Or, at least Rusty's best friend, haha."

"Dinner it is."

"I'll tell Rusty. You better not be late!"

"Wouldn't miss your cuisine for anything."

"Gotta run, see you in a while Millard. And bring an umbrella, newscaster said there would be a light shower."

"Got it. Bye!"

Millard hung up the phone, smiling. He hadn't had a solid conversation in a while since the guy with that-, you get it. The last 'conversation' he had was either with one of his lab assistants about coffee or with the brown fossils laid on his laboratory desk. He couldn't remember which though. He just wanted to get out of his house for now.

As if on cue, the sky rumbled and started raining heavily. The clouds seemed darker than before too. Millard cried out loud, "Oh would you look at that. Some light drizzle this is. At least my boat has shelter."

Grabbing his trench coat, umbrella and his favourite top hat, Millard ran out of his house towards the docks.

* * *

**Back at Dash's house**

Danella pointed at a window, "Oh look, its drizzling."

No sooner did she say that, the rain drops became bigger and hit the panes harder.

Dash laughed, "I hardly call that drizzling."

"Fine. It's _pouring_. End of story."

"Sweet damn, we lost track of time. It is late afternoon already. I guess you guys are staying for dinner, huh? I'll go down to tell mom."

Dash stood up and stretched his legs. Sitting down for too long gave him pins and needles in his calves and thighs. Brandon raised his eyebrows at Dash, who caught his eye.

"Numb," Dash shook his legs for emphasis, before heading for the door. As he turned towards the stairs, Dash was slightly surprised to see his mother ascending it.

"Dash, your dad and I will be heading to Viridian to pick up some groceries. Your god-pa Millard is staying for dinner today. In this storm, can you believe it?"

Dash's face lit up, he and his sister, Ellie, were both very fond of their godfather. He often told them his adventures he had when he was younger.

"That's great! But why today?"

"He has always been this, well, casual. By the way, what is it that you wanted to tell me?"

"How did you know?"

"I wasn't born yesterday, Dash. Come on, out with it."

"Actually the assignment took longer than expected, so Brandon and Danella are both staying for dinner. We, uh, met with some difficulties." Dash smiled sheepishly at his mother, like how kids do when they got caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar.

Mrs. Bolton raised her eyes and formed a slight pout with her mouth. "Distractions?"

"Yea, sort of."

"Whatever. Go tell your sister that your godfather is coming. She would be thrilled. And take care of her in this storm. You know she's awfully scared of lightning."

A flash of lightning streaked across a nearby window, its rumbling followed closely behind. "Yea, she is."

* * *

"So who's Millard?" Danella asked as she forcefully pried the console out of Brandon's hands. She had decided it was finally time to start on their assignment.

"Dash's godfather. Nice man, met him a couple of times. Hey, give that back!" Brandon replied before Dash could open his mouth.

"No. We had enough of fooling around. Time to finish what _you_ started." Then to Dash, "I didn't know you had a godfather."

"Now you do."

"Mhmm. What's he like?"

"He's brilliant. Don't worry, you'll like him. Trust me."

"You guys find weird stuff interesting. I bet he is too. Weird, that is. No offense, Dash." Danella gazed at Dash apologetically.

Smiling, he said, "None taken. Now let's finish up this trash," causing the three of them to snicker.

* * *

Millard saw Pallet Docks come into view and eased on the accelerator. As a result, the engine sputtered noisily. _Damned engine, I guess I need to fix it when I get back to Cinnabar._ He let his boat cruise to a halt at the docks, with the occasional bobbing up and down due to the sea currents. Millard secured his boat to the dock by tying a cleat knot to one of the anchors on the docks, and set off for the Bolton's residence.

It was getting dark, too dark for his liking. The faint streetlamps on the seemingly abandoned docks were just about the only sources of dim light. The hard rain was not helping either. Even with his umbrella and coat, he was still thoroughly drenched. Worse, the rain cut visibility to a few metres.

_Good thing I know my way to their house. Pass the docks, then the sewers and then through the town. __At least I don't have to go through a sugar mill__._

He walked out of the dock hurriedly and passed by a series of sewage pipes. A pair of red lights pulsed momentarily in the dark, in one of the pipes. Out of curiosity, Millard proceeded to inspect the spot the flash of light had flickered at and peered into one of the pipes.

_Nothing. Wait-_

Millard somehow felt the temperature sink another notch, sending a shiver up his spine. _Something's wrong._

Just as he reached for his Pokeball belt, a pair of red eyes appeared right in front of him. _Shit-_

Millard then crumpled to the floor and slipped into darkness.

* * *

"For the last time, normal type attacks cannot hit ghost types!" Brandon pulled his hair in exasperation.

"Can't an attack like Hyper Beam hit a ghost? It's like a beam. BEAM. Sparkle sparkle, shing shing?"

"No! It just passes right through it. Ok, think of ghost Pokemon as 4th dimensional creatures, and we humans or other normal attacks are 3-D stuff. 4-D stuff can see 3-D matter, which can in turn see 2-D figures, which can see 1-D specks. It's like the orbs get eaten by Pacman, who is controlled by us, who get eaten by ghosts. End of story. Understood?"

"Uh, no."

"Excellent."

An intense sprite of lightning flashed dangerously close to the house and the roar of thunder followed closely behind, as if in reply. Silence lingered for a brief moment before plunging the house into darkness, save the dim light of the moon casting wicked shadows everywhere. A soft scream could be heard elsewhere, before Danella panicked and screamed too. Only Dash and Brandon seem to remain somewhat composed.

"Calm down Danella, it's just a power cut. Nothing to be afraid of. We're all still here aren't we?" Dash reassured her with a pat on the shoulder.

"R-right. We're still all alive. Sorry."

"Now that you're okay, could you uh, stop hugging me?"

Unknowingly, Danella had jumped and grabbed something in that moment of impulse and fright. Well, that said something happened to be Dash. Realising this, Danella pulled back from Dash and muttered an almost inaudible 'sorry'.

Both flushed in the dark, and were silently thankful for the lack of light.

Brandon cut in, "I'll go up to check on your sister. Looks like Danella isn't the only one who freaked out."

"Thanks. I'll go downstairs to trip the fuse. Lightning must have blown it out." Dash proceeded to walk downstairs.

"I'll go with you." Danella followed him closely.

While descending the stairs, she apologised again. "Sorry about just now, you know I'm afraid of the dark."

"Don't worry about it. It happens to most of us. Cheer up!" In the ghostly moonlight, Dash saw a slight smile form on her face.

_Ding dong._

"Must be uncle Millard! I'll answer the door first."

Danella frowned slightly, she would have felt much more secure with the lights on first. To do that, the fuse needs to be re-tripped. Too bad only Dash knew where it- _Wait a minute, doorbells run on the concept of electromagnetism and those scientists' induced laws. And to do that, the power needed to be up. Something's wrong._

Realisation struck her and Danella turned to Dash. "Wait Dash, don't-"

But Dash had already turned the doorknob. His godfather Millard stood there and Dash was just about to fling himself to perform a bear hug before stopping halfway. Something was wrong. Millard looked somewhat, out of place. Zombified. And his eyes were closed.

Dash stared at his godfather's eyes, where the eyelids were covering the pair of handsome emerald eyes of his. Millard's eyes flicked open, and where the jade pupils were supposed to be, in its place revealed a pair of red, luminous eyes.

"_Hello Dash."_

* * *

**Author's ramble:** Cliff hanger! Dun-dun-du-dun. Pretty short chapter though. Well, I didn't really like writing this chapter. I have no idea what compelled me to write it. Released it after I saw a couple of hits and no reviews ): [_insert sad music here_] Brandon's showing signs of serious humour! _–throws confetti-_ Anyway, I'll keep making several pop culture references, you'll get a mention if you can spot any of them! There's only 1 in chapter 1 and 4 in chapter 2. I think. Reviews _very _much appreciated (:

_[Edit]_: Oh, and I revamped the summary, hopefully it looks better.

* * *

_To be continued_


	3. Ghoul Busters

Disclaimer's Note: Pokemon belongs to me! Scrap that. Pokemon does not belong to me. Damn you, Nintendo.

* * *

**Pokemon School Party! Chapter 3 – Ghoul Busters**

_Dash was recalling what his godfather, Millard, had said when he was sharing his adventures with Dash._

"_Ghost Pokemon are usually harmless if left unprovoked. Though due to their mysterious nature, they like to play pranks on humans. Remember the other time that I had to spend the night at Lavender Town? A small group of Haunters played prank after prank on me, mostly trying to scare the hell out of me."_

"_Really? You didn't get into any trouble with them?"_

"_Nope, they were a friendly bunch. But, be careful. Sometimes one or two could be just so malicious that they try to inflict real damage. The worst type of an attack is a possession. The ghost Pokemon simply takes over your soul, and your consciousness is no longer yours to control."_

_Millard continued, "It is quite easy to spot symptoms of a possession. Glazed eyes, weird behaviour, odd speeches and seemingly aimlessly walking about."_

* * *

Dash's godfather was now at the doorstep, making slight twitchy movements here and there. The eyes were a big giveaway; a pair of sinister red had replaced the original emerald. He's godfather has been possessed! Most likely by a Gengar. Only Gengars have red eyes, right?

Dash recalled what his godfather had said in sharing those past adventures with him.

"_To remove a person from possession, you can either destroy the source, or blast it away with enough energy." Millard had explained._ _"Worse come to worst, you could always knock out the person, making him stir up his consciousness and break free of the possession."_

Dash didn't have anything or Pokemon to flush away the source. Neither could he destroy a source he couldn't see, especially not without destroying his godfather.

_First things first, I need the power back up. But I can't leave Danella to distract my currently deranged godfather._

Switching from thought, Dash called out, "Danella, you need to trip the fuse!"

"But I don't know where it is!" Her reply sounded hollow in the dark.

"It's just behind the staircase, you'll find a metal box on the wall. Just flip on the leftmost switch on the bottom row."

"I'll try." With that, Danella scurried off with a tinge of panic.

The possessed Millard took advantage of the distraction and sent a Confuse Ray towards Dash. Dash diverted his attention towards Millard just as the ray hit him. Feeling somewhat dizzy and groggy, Dash stumbled and fumbled onto the floor.

Dash scrambled to his feet and hastily took an umbrella from the nearby umbrella holder. Raising the clothed stick up, he expressed a silent thought, '_Sorry uncle Millard_', before swinging it at full force at Millard.

Unfortunately, Millard seemed to have godly reflexes, mostly due to the Gengar controlling his movements. Millard intercepted the blow and snapped the pink umbrella, which Dash had just noticed its colour, cleanly into half. Unfazed, he promptly snatched another umbrella, this time blue, only for history to repeat itself.

The Gengar in Millard, now annoyed, sent the remaining umbrellas and canes in the holder levitating. In the dark, the levitated canes were swaying in the air and coated with a strawberry red aura that given the circumstances would have otherwise looked dazzling.

As if expecting what was coming, Dash ran behind the couch just as the Millard sent the umbrellas and canes flying at Dash, and occasionally threw a sock full of chalk that it had conjured from mid-air.

* * *

Meanwhile, Danella was trying every switch in the circuit breaker that she took so long to find in the dark. In a moment of panic, she had failed to remember which was the correct switch and resorted to trial and error.

_Dash's godfather looked so creepy I had forgotten what Dash's instruction was. __Was it the upper row? Up? No, the bottom. Down it is. Something about the leftmost switch, or was it right? I think it's left, right?_

Danella flicked a coupled a switches before finally tripping the correct one. A soft noise hummed in the background and a brief moment later the power and lights were restored. Danella let out a cry of joy before heading back to the living room.

* * *

Dash had been cornered after running from Millard, he was after all, powerless and a ghost-human-fusion.

Gengar used Mean Look and Dash felt all his valour leak out of him and timidly stayed on the floor. Paralyzed and feeling like a fish facing a barracuda, Dash could do nothing.

Just this instant the lights came back on and Danella ran into view. Unfortunately the newly introduced radiance did not seem to faze Millard, who seemed geared up to unleash a Night Shade at Dash.

"Dash, nooo-" Danella screamed as she helplessly watched Dash sitting on the floor, immobilized.

Right before Gengar released the purplish-black beam, a baseball hit Millard square on his forehead, which sparked Millard's consciousness, causing Gengar to lose control of its possession.

Dash felt the effects of Mean Look lift immediately, and both youngsters looked at where the ball had come from, and saw Brandon throwing another baseball up and down midway on the stairs.

"I came down since it took you so long to get the power back up. Figured there was some excitement going on."

Millard, on the other hand, was quick to recover and noticed the Gengar that had controlled him was slowly acknowledging that it was forced out of its possession, and quickly dispatched his Kabutops and Omastar.

Gengar, though malicious, was not stupid, upon seeing the presence of other Pokemon, seemed to admit defeat, and flew out of the house.

Millard, seeing there was no further danger, recalled his fossil-based Pokemon.

Dash quickly ran up to his godfather and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Hah, I should be asking you that." Millard smirked slightly.

"But how did you get possessed by a wild Gengar?" What puzzled Dash was that his godfather was a fairly strong and skilled trainer, there was no way he could lose to a Gengar, could he?

"I was caught off guard; blasted Gengar didn't even give me a chance to call out my Pokemon." Millard was still irritated at himself for being careless. "At least it's gone now, thanks for the throw Brandon, it knocked away Gengar's control. Though it's still hurting," to which he rubbed his forehead.

"No problem, and sorry, haha." Brandon chuckled and shrugged.

"There, that wasn't hard." Dash piped in.

To everyone's surprise, Danella ran up to him and bear hugged Dash, causing the latter to blush furiously.

"Whaa-?"

"You idiot! You could have been killed!" Danella was on the verge of tears. Upon releasing Dash, she scampered off to the toilet to wipe the tear drops away.

"Looks like you have some girl problems." Millard said teasingly.

Dash, dense as ever, could only say, "Huh?"

* * *

**Later**

"YOU GOT POSSESSED?" Katherine blew her head off, figuratively of course.

The Boltons, Millard, Brandon and Danella were all seated around the dinner table, munching down the mini-feast that Mrs. Bolton had cooked up.

Danella found uncle Millard to be actually a relatively funny and interesting guy, much like how Dash and Brandon had previously described to her. Any past doubt she had about Dash's godfather now completely vanished. Yes, he was slightly weird, but in a very good way.

"Yea, small matter. I like this mushroom sauce. Brilliant, seriously." Millard brushed off the topic and smacked his lips. Apparently food was a much more interesting topic to him.

"SMALL MATTER? I would hardly call a ghost possession more trivial than food."

"But it's your food! You know how godlike it is."

"Flattery." Katherine snorted.

Mr. Bolton, and the four adolescents (including Ellie, Dash's sister), chuckled at the sight in front of them. For Rusty, it re-enacted his younger days with Millard and his wife and their adventures. For the four children, it was a treat to see an adult's bicker. Even more so a funny one.

* * *

"Thank you for the scrumptious dinner Kate. Can I hire you as my personal chef?" Millard said, earning the stare from Rusty and laughter from the children.

"For the last time, no. I have my own job, and I am a mother too. I wouldn't have time anyway." Mrs. Bolton raised her brows at Millard.

"That's too bad." Millard shrug and said in a matter of fact tone.

"In any case, I still loved the dinner. And the company. Especially the company." Millard broke into a genuine smile.

The rain was still pouring, only showing slight signs of letting up. However, while the lightning remained, the rumble of thunder was somewhat less audible, which was a good thing for Ellie. Nonetheless, she and Danella still flinched every time a flash of spider lightning cackled throughout the otherwise clear night sky.

While Mrs. Bolton went back to the kitchen to clear the dishes, with her husband following closely behind to help her, Millard kept the four kids company and told them of even more past adventures he had experienced. He had a gift, a way with words that could make even the most boring word sound fascinating.

Soon, Millard had to go. "It's getting late, it's already 10 o'clock!"

The rain was finally letting up, though there was still a drizzle. Both Danella and Brandon had to go home too.

"Come again anytime Millard, you know you're always welcome to crash here."

With that, Dash and Ellie both hugged their godfather goodbye. Millard nodded at Brandon and Danella, who both waved to Millard. "Nice seeing you Brandon, and you too Danella." He looked from Dash to Danella, then ever so slightly winked at her, causing the latter to flush furiously.

They all gathered at the door and planned to see Millard, Danella and Brandon off. Unfortunately, when they opened the door to welcome the cool night breeze, they all saw an army of ghosts gathered beyond the porch. It seemed the Gengar that had possessed Millard did not want to back down, and brought roughly 15 or so of its ghost friends.

Mr. Bolton was the first to react. He sent out his Alakazam onto the field, as did his wife, who sent out a Victreebel. Katherine sternly told Ellie to stay in the house, effectively nullifying any arguments. She was about to do the same with Dash, Brandon and Danella before Millard interrupted.

"They could help. We need all the help we can to clear this horde."

"Fine, but stay out of trouble." She hesitated for a while before running to the battlefield to help her husband.

Millard sent out five jets of red light, releasing an Omanyte, Omastar, Kabuto, Kabutops and Aerodactyl.

"I can only control maximum two at a time. Dash, take my Kabuto. Danella, Omanyte's for you. Brandon, you get my flying beast. If you're in trouble just shout." The three nodded and all four joined Mr. And Mrs. Bolton.

Dash knew Kabuto was rock and water type, but it could also use grass typed moves. Good thing he paid attention in class.

"Kabuto, use Absorb!"

Dash saw the brown shellfish hesitating for an instant before obeying his command. A luminous green glow formed at the tips of its yellow claws, as well as at two Gastlys. The two emerald spheres then accelerated towards Kabuto, as if pulled by invisible threads. Both Gastlys were seemingly more tired.

As if satisfied, Kabuto promptly went on to do whatever it wanted, in this case, grazing the field grass. Dash tried to get Kabuto to obey him another time, but failed terribly.

Dash turned around to see how his friends were faring. Danella, like him, couldn't get Omanyte to obey her.

"Come on Omanyte, get up and do some water gun or something. Spray at that horde of ghosts!" Danella was starting to get impatient with the blue mollusc. Omanyte turned around and stared at her with its big, beady eyes and gave a look that Danella had interpreted as a 's_eriously_?'

Danella sighed in frustration as Omanyte continued disobeying her. Upon catching Dash's look, she shrugged as she looked from the sea creature and back to Dash.

Distracted, Millard saw Danella struggling to keep Omanyte in check and called, "You've done well Danella, you can leave it to me now."

"Omanyte, give those Gastlys a taste of your triple guns!" The shelled creature wriggled its ten tentacles and complied. To Danella's amazement, Omanyte sent out three water jets simultaneously, heading in three different directions. All three jets hit three different targets, effectively knocking out the three remaining Gastlys, but not before one of them retaliated by cursing Omanyte.

Omanyte felt weak and toppled over. It had already been weakened by previous attacks from the Gastlys. A flash of red light indicated Millard had recalled the fainted creature.

"Thanks Omanyte, return."

With the Gastlys done, Millard felt no need to endanger Dash and Danella with the more dangerous ghouls. Similarly, Kabuto was recalled.

"Your job is done! Go back to the house and stay there. It's too dangerous for you." Millard shouted over the rain and attacks. "Where is Brandon?"

Both Dash and Danella shrugged in reply. They both felt disappointed in not helping much, but complied. Deciding not to create unnecessary danger, they headed to the house but lingered at the porch.

* * *

Brandon had approached the flying dinosaur slowly. Aerodactyl eyed at his trainer's acquaintance closely, as if suspicious of him. Yet, Brandon was confident of his approach to the creature. _The thing about these dinosaurs is you have to show them respect._

Brandon bowed and scraped to the creature, bending his head ever so slightly and shifting his right leg behind. For a while there was a pregnant silence between the two, save the shouting commands of his associates. Then, as quickly as it came, the silence was broken by a cry from Aerodactyl, who in turn bowed lowly to Brandon, indicating that he could ride it.

Brandon silently celebrated as he sat on the back of the neck of Aerodactyl, which took off momentarily. With his new-found confidence, Brandon instructed, "Use your badass flamethrower!" Annoyed, the pterodactyl turned its head at Brandon and growled. Clearly it didn't want to be ordered around.

"Or you could just attack them at your own will." Brandon said as he shifted uncomfortably on its back.

* * *

"Look! Brandon is riding the Aerodactyl. Sweet damn."

"At least he's able to help your parents and godfather. We're so useless." Danella leaned against the railing of the porch and watch the ferocious battle going on, feeling slightly dejected.

"I know how you feel." Dash too felt pathetic and squeezed Danella on the shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

Meanwhile, the three adults were shouting over the din.

"This is getting nowhere! There are too many of them." Rusty complained.

"Are the children safe? I don't want to endanger them any further." In the moonlight Mrs. Bolton's eyes showed concern and worry.

"Yea, I sent Dash and Danella back to the house. Brandon's still riding my Aero. He should be safe up there." Millard replied.

"Something is not right! Why would there be rampant Pokemon attacking us for no reason?"

"I couldn't agree more, something is amiss. It's like someone is controlling them."

Then it hit Millard. While battling, he had seen a Gengar slightly bigger and meaner than the rest of the ghost army lurking behind the battlefield, but ignored it. Now, it seemed as if _that_ Gengar was the leader.

"Wait, I think the leader of the horde is that big beastie hiding at the back of this nonsense. I reckon that's the one controlling this horde. A trainer can't be controlling all these Pokemon at once, right?"

"Only one way to find out! Alakazam, use Psywave on the last Gengar hiding behind the horde."

Purple rays emanated from Alakazam's dual spoons, and hit its target. The Gengar at the back appeared to be affected and dizzy from the attack. This resulted in the entire pack of ghosts to temporarily stop their attacks. The rest of the horde simply levitated, and appeared confused and lost. Once the leader had regained its composure, the assaults initiated again.

"Millard, you were right! That big, fat ghoul is the leader. He's the one controlling this... madness. And probably the one that possessed you." Katherine shook her head in disgust.

"Of course I'm right! Who do you take me for? I was one of the-" Millard was cut off by Rusty.

"Now's not the time for joke, fellas!"

"Great. Just great. Now that it knows we're targeting it, the attacks are getting more intensive. I can't even seem to find an opening through this pack. We need a distraction. Rusty, Kate, you guys know what to do?"

Husband and wife nodded. They needed to keep the front pack busy.

Apparently Victreebel had finally absorbed enough moonlight despite being night time. After all, Solar Beam require taking in of sunlight, and the moon was an indirect reflecting source of sunlight. Theoretically.

"Victreebel, sweep this horde with Solar Beam!"

Similarly, Rusty instructed his Alakazam to keep the ghosts company. "Alakazam, give me a Psychic, full power!"

Green and purple rays assailed the group of ghosts. While his companions held back the wave of Haunters and Gengars, Millard wasted no time in dealing the final blow to the leader.

"Omastar, aim at the last Gengar with Hydro Pump! Kabutops, use Ancient Power!"

Summoned rocks with a touch of ancient magic passed through the frontline of Haunters and found its target. A massive jet of stream too had hit the leader. The chief Gengar was caught by surprise and couldn't avoid the upcoming attacks, and had fainted.

Without their leader, the remaining ghost Pokemon lingered for a while before either floating away or vanishing into thin air.

"We did it!"

"But strange, why would a wild Pokemon attack you and want revenge. They seem more rampant nowadays. I'll have to ask Professor Oak another time."

* * *

Dash looked at the spot where the head Gengar was. In the dim moonlight, he could faintly make out the outline of a woman. It seemed only he himself had noticed her. Dash squinted with his eyes for a clearer view, but a sudden crack of lightning made him shield his eyes. In that instant, the woman had mysteriously vanished too.

Dash rubbed his eyes. The woman he had seen. Was it an illusion? It couldn't be. The last thing he noticed about the mysterious figure was that she was smiling. A creepy, sinister smile.

* * *

**Author's ramble:** Hooray, tinge of romance! And they get to command a first Pokemon! Poor Danella, I couldn't let all three seemingly able to control the Pokemon right? Figured the most appropriate one was the 'mysterious' Brandon. I loosely based the part where he got on Aerodactyl, on Harry Potter trying to 'get-to-know' Buckbeak, during Hagrid's first lesson.

Oh and if you guys spot any mistakes feel free to pm them, I know how irritating it can look. 5 different references this time. Free cyber cookies for reviews! (:

* * *

_To be continued_


End file.
